The Piss-Weak 160 meter Wet Noodle Contest

[W1IA]

After a fun night talking with Dave W2APE and his neighbor...I got a great Idea!

His neighbor had a 600 feet chunk of wire running through the grass into the wood....amazing Keith WA1HZK and I were able to work him. Dave and I had such a chuckle over it, I think this would be a hoot.
Callling the "Piss-Weak 160 Meter Wet Noodle Contest"

What do you thinks guys?

Rules of the test:

1) no more than 100 watts
2) load anything within your property...list includes your wifes PT cruiser, the mailbox, the gutter, the dog run, the screen house, bird feeder poles etc...(no live animals) road kill OK.
3) No regular antennas are allowed.....(Isotrons OK)
4) AM mode only...no SSB,CW,digital crud etc...
Scoring as follows: 1-3 objects "Limp-wrist award"
                          3-5 objects "Store bought ham award"
                          5-7 objects "I love MFJ award"
                          7-10 objects "Truly Piss weak award"

Special certificate for the smallest silliest object...ie: beer bottle cap, nose-pick pliers etc...

HA!


Brent(Tina) W1IA

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Brent -Teena,
                    Count me in. I figgered I could start by loading up the alumininum sliding doors in my family room, progress to rain gutters, etc etc. Let us all know the time and dates, etc.

Q: If a man goes into the forest, sets up a short antenna and a portable rig that's not even heard, and oldbuzzards about his wife, is he still a Pissweaker?
                                                                  Joe Cro N3IBX

[Glenn NY4NC]

There's a chain link dog pen (no dog) in my side yard that would be perfect for this!!..

5-7 objects "I love MFJ award"

[W1UJR]

OK, sounds great Tina!

Where and when?

May be a good idea to have a tall ship to moderate as we may not be able to hear each other directly.

Just for reference, I've got the bedsprings antenna all set up here.

[W2VW]

That was Al W2NCH. He is 20 miles from here. This isn't the first time that AM contacts made with wire right on the ground have been made from his place. It is the first time for 160. It is also the first time it has been done without any match to the rig which is solid state with power foldback. Might have been getting 5 Watts out...maybe.
 I'm thinking of a plan here for the contest. Anybody know how well steel belted radial tires insulate R.F.?

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

May be a good idea to have a tall ship to moderate as we may not be able to hear each other directly.

Bruce - That's a terrific idea! I'd be willing to be a Mid-Atlantic States moderator to catch any pissweak traffic coming from my vicinity. Perhaps one from the New England states and Southern Sates and the 8/9 call areas as well.
      Joe N3IBX

A Left Coast volunteer to monitor for the J0 to J3 call districts and then a Pacific Northwest moderator to listen for all J's calling from Northern "HONSHU ONLY" call now pleease.......

[W1UJR]

That was Al W2NCH. He is 20 miles from here. This isn't the first time that AM contacts made with wire right on the ground have been made from his place. It is the first time for 160. It is also the first time it has been done without any match to the rig which is solid state with power foldback. Might have been getting 5 Watts out...maybe.
 I'm thinking of a plan here for the contest. Anybody know how well steel belted radial tires insulate R.F.?

Had the same thought Dave, would imagine the item in question would be capacitivly coupled to ground.
Actually thought of using two of those items, large, heavy with four tires each, to have a balanced array.
Given their mobile nature, I could even rotate so the radiation lobes were correct.

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

I just came up with a great idea! Why not put a hulk of an old rig, Apache,Viking I, whatever, on top of your roof, hook a lead in to it and toon your rig up into it? An ols solid state rig would be a bonus since it's smaller and offers less metallic surfaces to radiate.

All kidding aside, has anyone ever though of loading their rig into a tree? Something with a column of ferrous fluid, like out GI's did on a Pacific Island during WWII? I've heard it can actually be done and almost had a sked with someone in Scotland who wanted to try the same thing. It's got something to do with the convoluted stagnated water/fluid inside of the tree actually rots and turns itself into something funky that will radiate RF....... just a thought................

Joe N3IBX

Calling CQ all conifers CQ all conifers.... de N3IBX k:

[W1UJR]

All kidding aside, has anyone ever though of loading their rig into a tree? Something with a column of ferrous fluid, like out GI's did on a Pacific Island during WWII? I've heard it can actually be done and almost had a sked with someone in Scotland who wanted to try the same thing. It's got something to do with the convoluted stagnated water/fluid inside of the tree actually rots and turns itself into something funky that will radiate RF....... just a thought................

Joe N3IBX

Ever read any of the "Kurt Sterba" Aerials books?
That's exactly what he does, load and get objects like bedsprings, a highchair, umbrella, etc. to radiate.
He writes quite well, explains the theory, and has a good sense of humor in the process.
Of course Kurt Sterba is a pen name, but the guy is quite sharp.

Believe it or not, there is actually a protocol for this, see -->> http://www.radiomonkey.org/n0ew/StrangeAntennas/k0s.html


If I can make another suggestion, this would make an excellent article for QST and/or Electric Radio.
I'd be happy to write such, provided I received photos and station descriptions and this goes off as planned.
Would really be a feather in the cap for the AM community, and would most likely draw more than a few into our quriky subset of the amateur service.

It's Brent's idea, so I'll leave up to him to define the form and function.

What say ye?

-Bruce

[Paul, K2ORC]

This is the chain link fence and the PT Cruiser....  And this is the G5RV....

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

This is the chain link fence and the PT Cruiser....  And this is the G5RV....

Your PT Cruiser is 12DB over the G5RV OM............

[W1UJR]

This is the chain link fence and the PT Cruiser....  And this is the G5RV....

I always get a chuckle when I hear that.

But I am unclear as to the point.
Reciprocity would dictate that the antenna you are hearing the other station best on should also be the one he is hearing you best on.

Or am I missing something here?

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Generally that would be true, but not always. Reciprocity doesn't always apply at HF. Why? Because the ionosphere is not constant is its characteristics. And the the best path from your antenna to the other guy's is not necessarily the same path his signal takes to get to your antenna. Then there's the local noise factor - one antenna may get way more noise than the other. Lots of variables.....

[W2VW]

Generally that would be true, but not always. Reciprocity doesn't always apply at HF. Why? Because the ionosphere is not constant is its characteristics. And the the best path from your antenna to the other guy's is not necessarily the same path his signal takes to get to your antenna. Then there's the local noise factor - one antenna may get way more noise than the other. Lots of variables.....

Another case where reciprocity does not work is when large copper loss is introduced.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Yep. That will kill the signal on TX, but will usually be unnoticeable on RX. RX quality on HF (especially lower HF) is mostly defined by SNR. The SNR of most received signals will be about the same on a crappy antenna as a good one (yes the actually signal level will be higher on the good antenna, but usually so will the noise). This is why I can use my Zenith Transoceanic to listen to 75 meter AM with nothing more than a 3 foot whip. I'd be mighty PW if I used such an antenna for TX.